Panasonic is going to release 3 new tough digital movie camera models this month. The hardcore “WA30″ model is the new ultimate handheld camera to use to take active outdoor scene videos. It is waterproof (10m), dustproof, shockproof (1.5m), freezeproof (-10 degree Celsius) and the design is a good ergonomic one-hand style. Its wide 2.6 inch LC display rotates 285 degrees and you can take photos/movies from any angles. Still images are 16M pixels. It can also take photos while …
We’ve featured our fairshare of portableAtari2600 mods, but I don’t think any of those can hold a candle to this one. Speaking of candles, the future owner of this one of a kind handheld should keep it away from even the tiniest of flames, because its case is made entirely out of wood.
The mod was made by eBay seller retro_mood. Inside the varnished wooden case is a 3.5″ TFT screen, a 700mAh battery that should last up to 3 hours per charge, two player controls – one of which was made out of a PlayStation analog stick – and the guts of an NTSC Atari 2600 console. Retro_mood also added digital volume and brightness controls as well as composite video and mono audio outputs. Perhaps most importantly for a handheld, this Atari 2600 has a pause button! Its weight – 600g (approx. 1.3lbs) – borders on iPad territory though, so minus points for portability there.
Ultimately though, retro_mood intends this handheld to reside not in the deep pockets of a collector. He’s selling it for a cool $1,240 (USD) on eBay. Money doesn’t grow on trees, but neither do wooden cases.
Good news: Sony has revealed a new PlayStation console! But it’s not what you think. Instead, there’s an Ice Silver edition PlayStation Vita reaching Asian countries from February 28th onwards. The new hue is attached to a WiFi model and marks the fourth special color we’ve seen in just over a year since the Vita hit shops, joining the more ostentatious blue, red and white shades from 2012. Hong Kong residents will pay HK$2,280 (US$294) to stand out from the crowd on the 28th, with launches also known to be coming later to Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. There’s no word on if or when silver might reach other parts of the world, although Sony might not want to wait too long for any further expansion — it’s likely that a color addition will be the last thing on gamers’ minds in a few weeks’ time.
In the market for a serious portable gaming machine? While you might have your eyes set on Nvidia’s upcoming Project Shield, here’s a very capable system you can buy right now. The JXD S7300 HD Gamepad2 is a power-packed portable that’s ideal for playing both retro emulated games and today’s latest Android titles.
The just-released Android 4.1.1-based handheld offers dual, true analog sticks, a real D-pad, dual shoulder buttons, Start, Select and ABXY face buttons, so it’s perfect for controlling just about any game you can throw at it. It’s got an ample 7-inch 1024×600 display, which also supports 5-finger multitouch. It’s also got the requisite 3-axis motion sensors for games that depend on those controls. It includes software for mapping buttons and joysticks to your Android touchscreen games as well. Dimensions for the handheld are 9.5″(W) x 4.77″(H) x 0.56″(D) – about the size (but not the thickness) of the Wii U GamePad, and it weighs 0.90 pounds – about mid-way between the weight of an iPad Mini and an iPad 4.
It comes pre-loaded with full-speed emulators for the original Sony PlayStation, Neo-Geo, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, NES (Famicom), Super Nintendo (Super Famicom), Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), and Capcom CPS1/CPS2 systems. But since it’s running Android, it’s easy to add more emulators, like MAME4droid. It even comes with Superuser pre-installed, so you can root the system in seconds and install pretty much anything you want on it.
Under the hood is an Amlogic MX dual-core chipset (Cortex A9 CPU, ARM mali400 GPU), running at 1.5GHz, and 1GB of system RAM. Connectivity is 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and “external connection to Ethernet and 3G” whatever that means – presumably via its USB 2.0 port. It’s unclear if it supports Bluetooth though. And while it can’t wirelessly send content to your HDTV, it does have an HDMI output, so you can mirror its display to your big screen in full 1080p resolution. It’s even got a small 0.3MP user-facing camera for video chats, and true stereo speakers. You can check out all the detailed system info below (the 976×600 screen resolution reported is because AnTuTu doesn’t take into account the height of the title bar.)
Here’s a video showing the system emulating the N64 classic Super Mario 64 at a buttery-smooth frame rate:
And if you’d like to play something more modern, how about Shadowgun – with physical joysticks and buttons?
The guys over at WillGoo are now stocking the JXD S7300, where it sells for $165.99(USD), or you can grab a bundle with a 32GB SD card for $186.99. Currently, the white model is sold out, but you can still get one in black (though it has a textured finish unlike the white one.) You can also pick up a pair of them for just $299.99, which might be cool since the system supports local Wi-Fi multiplayer.
Seems like this thing is pretty loaded for the price, never mind the fact that it works as a full Android Jelly Bean device, complete with web browsing, media playback, apps, etc. If you decide to buy one, there’s already a good discussion board for the JXD S7300 going on over at Dingoonity, so you can find out the scoop from others who have purchased or who are interested in the handheld.
A new challenger steps in the niche market… ring of portable consoles built to run emulators of older systems. But like the relatively famous Pandora handheld, the GCW-Zero aims not just to let players enjoy old games but also let those with programming skills tweak and play with its software.
The GCW-Zero runs on OpenDingux, a Linux distribution that was originally made for Dingoo’s gaming handhelds. Hardware-wise the GCW-Zero has a 1GHz Injenic CPU, a Vivante GC860 GPU, 512MB DDR2 RAM and 16GB of internal memory. It also has a microSD slot that supports micro SDHC cards up to 32 GB or micro SDXC cards up to 64 GB, a mini-USB port and a mini-HDMI 1.3 out, which is a nice surprise. The controls are mostly what you’d expect – a d-pad, an analog nub, 4 face buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, select and start buttons – except the GCW-Zero also has an accelerometer, so it supports tilt controls.
Here’s a video of a few games running on the handheld, courtesy of GCW-Zero lead tester Kirk Shepherd:
You can check out more videos of the handheld on Shepherd’s YouTube channel. But if you think this is the portable videogame museum for you, pledge at least $135 (USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser to reserve a unit. Can you imagine just how much money Nintendo, Sony, Sega and the other old guards would make if they put their heads (and licenses) together and released an all-conquering retro handheld?
Nintendo plans to merge its handheld and console gaming units into one division to create next generation hardware “that will turn heads,” according to Nikkei. It’s reporting that the gaming outfit is feeling the heat from tablet and smartphone gaming (and likely upstart outfits like Ouya, too) so is looking to speed up the development cycle and increase product interoperability. That’s why it’s allegedly bringing the brain power from all its divisions together to inaugurate the unified division by February 16th of this year — transferring in 130 console and 150 handheld engineers, to start. Nikkei said it’ll house the new team in a $340 million facility next to its Kyoto HQ that’ll be completed by the end of the year, seeing it as “a hotbed of new ideas.” All this comes on the heels of tepid launches of the Wii U console and Nintendo 3DS gamepad — making a shakeup none too shocking, if true.
Update: We contacted Nintendo, who confirmed by email that the report is, indeed, accurate.
Audacious claims are starting to become a standard component of Razer hardware announcements — following the Blade’s claim to the title of “world’s first true gaming laptop” is the Razer Edge: “a full feature PC and the most powerful tablet in the world.” It certainly has the full feature PC aspect down — with an Intel Core i5 (or i7 for Pro) processor at its heart, the Edge is more of a modular Ultrabook than your run-of-the-mill tablet. Then again, that seems to be the Windows 8 slate trend, doesn’t it? We pitted the Edge against some of the category’s recent stars, including two other tablets, a slider and a full featured convertible laptop. Read on to see how it stacks up.
Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has been dreaming about building a true PC gaming portable for years. He’s cooked up prototype clamshells, controller-toting tablets, and built two top of the line gaming laptops along the way — but now his dream is almost ready: the Razer Edge. Look familiar? It should. It’s been handled, teased and even redesigned at the behest of Razer’s social legions. It’s Project Fiona evolved. Hoping to keep pace with community feedback, Razer is kitting out the Edge with a 3rd gen Intel Core processor, a 10.1-inch 1,366 x 768 display, an NVIDIA GT640M LE GPU, 4 to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, USB 3.0 and a 64, 128 or 256GB SSD, depending on the SKU. Min translated the slate’s build into some digestible framerates: 59 fps in Dishonored, he told us, and 41 fps in DiRT Showdown. Sound intriguing? It gets better — the baseline 1.7Ghz Core i5 variant of the Edge will sell for $999 and the beefed up 1.9GHz Core i7 Pro model will run for $1299, keeping the device well below the community’s $1,300 to $1,500 price expectations. Even better, the whole shebang is going to be available in the first quarter of this year.
Razer had to change more than Project Fiona’s name to stay under budget, of course — the prototype’s handlebar controllers have migrated to an optional gamepad dock. It’s a win and a loss — fans in Razer’s social media campaign demanded detachable controllers, but their absence makes obtaining the complete “Edge experience” a bit more of a chore — one that will cost $249 on top of the price of the slate itself. Even so, the move to modular is a good thing, and allowed Razer to develop other accessories: a keyboard dock, life-giving 40Wh battery packs ($69) and a $99 docking station, replete with three USB 2.0 ports, plus stereo and HDMI output for a “home console” experience. Razer says the Edge has specific “modes” based around these accessories — the tablet alone features the obvious multi-touch tricks of Windows 8, and the keyboard dock gives PC gamers access to the familiar WASD controls they’re used to. The launcher we saw at CES 2012 is still there too, giving the docking station a pseudo-console interface befitting of your television (and Steam Big Picture Mode, of course). As we said, collecting the whole set is a tall order, but Razer is hoping to make the task a little easier for gamers after the Pro model — offering the i7 tablet and controller dock for a bundled price of $1499 ($50 less than if purchased separately). Completionists will need to wait until Q3 to pick up the keyboard dock though, as its form and price still aren’t finalized.
Taking aim at the multi-billion dollar gaming industry, NVIDIA today revealed its own mobile gaming console, codenamed “Project Shield,” which is designed to combine the best of Android handheld devices with the best of console gaming.
The compact handheld is powered by NVIDIA’s powerful new Tegra 4 processor, which has a whopping 72 GPU cores, and 4 A15 CPU cores (though it’s not clear if it comes with the 4G LTE modem processor that’s offered in the Tegra 4.) It’s got a full console-quality controller built in, complete with dual analog sticks, a D-Pad and all the buttons you’re used to. You’ll also find a pair of tuned-port bass-reflex speakers which are supposed to provide higher-quality audio than typically found in a handheld.
It also has standard HDMI, microUSB and 3.5mm jacks, as well as a microSD slot for storage. At 5″ diagonal, its 720p touchscreen display is only about the size of a large smartphone.
There’s a complete Android Jelly Bean-based system built into the lid of the Shield, providing full HD video when connected to a TV via HDMI. They also are expecting to offer a wireless video capability like AirPlay down the road. It can even play 4K video, if you’ve got a high enough res TV for that. Of course, you can always play games, videos and music directly on the handheld’s small screen.
During the launch demo for CES 2013, they showed a set of Project Shield handhelds playing Hawken head-to-head, so it’s definitely capable of supporting multiplayer gaming. The device can even wirelessly stream and play games from your PC if it has a GeForce GTX GPU, though the CES 2013 demo of this capability stumbled a bit.
There’s no word yet on pricing or a release date for Project Shield, but I’m certain we’ll hear much more about it in the coming months.
After witnessing the fall of the DS, DSi, 3DS and PlayStation Vita, it’s no surprise to hear that the Neo Geo X has succumbed to the talents of the homebrew community, but it is a little shocking how easy the handheld was to conquer. Upon cracking the device open, enthusiasts were surprised to find no copy protection to speak of — just a lightly glued MicroSD card. The folks on the Neo Geo forum wasted no time experimenting, and soon found that the handheld’s Bios and game ROMs can be successfully swapped for new games or custom loaders. Substitute files need to retain the name of the file they replace, and swapped games remain mislabeled in the Neo Geo X menu, but the trick has already allowed some users to install the popular AES Unibios. The community hopes that the discovery will eventually allow them to tweak the handheld’s TV-out resolution and enable manual switching between AES / MVS game modes. It’s hardly a “hack,” considering the SD card is completely unprotected, but it’s a good start. Check out the source link below to peer at the device’s insides, or just to watch the community in action.
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